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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 25, No. 5. 1962.
The view from the Left
The view from the Left
An Open Letter to "Truth"
Dear Mr Barrett,—I have received your letter of the 3rd of April, in which you ask me to divulge, to your Mr Clarke, any information I have concerning the organisations I labelled Fascist in this column. I would have thought that the way in which I spoke about your paper would have made it clear that such an invitation would be at the very least, unwelcome it is not merely that I would feel degraded in associating myself with a paper that sells itself by reporting the more unusual habits of the sexual deviants and the exploits of precocious adolescents in this country, I should also object to the way in which you would use the information. If you limited yourself to attacking the aims and objects of such organisations and examined the forces within society which give rise to such organisations, then some useful purpose would be served by my co-operating with you. After all I too am opposed to the theory and practice of communism, but I do not believe that any useful purpose was served by the McCarthy-like articles that Truth published.
I realise, Mr Barrett, that your letter was partly a response to the challenge I issued in the last paragraph of my par; therefore I must offer my apologies to your paper. Truth, it is clear, is willing to hold individual and possible Fascists as well as Communists up to ridicule, abuse, possible victimisation.—I remain, Indignantly,
Val Maxwell.
Testing Time
I find it an uncomfortable position to be in when condemning the forthcoming Christmas Island tests. It's not the stand, it's the company (as the actress said to the bishop). Mr Diefenbaker; the "Evening Post"; the Y.W.C.A. and the Professional and Business Women's Association have all come out against the tests in the last week.
The "Evening Post's" attack upon the stand and actions taken by Mr Holyoake must have surprised many readers. Its two main points were that instead of merely wringing his hands and bleating, "what can I do," Mr Holyoake should have protested vigorously and secondly that the setting up of monitoring stations to tell us when the fallout arrives is, in the opinion of the Post, of somewhat limited value. it also delivered a well aimed attack at Mr Gotz for his labelling of those who oppose the tests as communists and agitators.
The large number of women's organisations, both locally and all over the world, that have declared their opposition to the tests reveals the truth of the axiom that women are more concerned with life than with politics. Men are raised to accept without complaining, without thinking, the idea that they should sacrifice their lives for the good of their country. They therefore find the dangers inherent in nuclear testing less abhorrent than do women and will acquiesce more readily to those who claim that continued testing is in the best interests of the West.
The full implication of some of the changes made to the terms of the University Entrance bursary by the Government does not seem to be appreciated by students. W. Rosenberg, in an article published in Monthly Review No. 21, has this, in part, to say about the reduction of the term of the bursary to three years:—
"Only a small minority of students graduate in three years. The following is taken from the Parry Report on New Zealand Universities (p. 25):
Graduation Rate; Arts and Science Students who Enrolled at the Universities as First Year Full-Time Students in 1955
Arts
Graduated 3 years—Men 28%, Women 43%. Graduated 4 years: Men 18%, Women 12%. Not Yet Graduated, Men 54%, Women 45%.
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"Well, I dunno: you see, I was Idyll before I became a Siegfried."
Science
Graduated 3 years Men 22%, Women 28%. Graduated 4 years, Men 22%, Women 24%. Not Yet Graduated, Men 56%, Women 48%.
It can be seen that—except for the 43 per cent of women students in Arts—less than 30 per cent of all students pass their degree in three years. While the increased fees will induce some students to finalise their courses in three years when otherwise they might not have done so, there can be no doubt whatever that there will be a considerable residue of students now and in the foreseeable future who will require four and more years for their bachelor's degree. These people will now have to find their own board, they will have no allowance and they will have to pay fees which—in their final year—may well amount to over £50. (Arts subjects have been raised to 15 guineas; science subjects to 24 guineas). In other words, the fourth year non-city arts and science student for a bachelor's degree will be something like £150 worse off than he was before the reform. (Lost: £40 allowance, £50 boarding bursary, £60 fee bursary)".
Val Maxwell.